Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1887-11-03
Hard Tack and Soft Bread.
BY JAMES FRANKLIN Fits.

Very thrilling and sensational is the
title of this sketch. The civilian might
wonder what could be written about it.
But to the veteran those words mean
great deal; to him they stand for the
light and the shady side of the sol
dier's life. There is very much to be
said on the subject-so much that I
can only glance at it in this column.
There were, first and last, in the vol
unteer army of the United States dur
ing the war no less than q million and
half of soldiers. There were so many
of them that it is calculated that one
out of every eight of the loyal male
population was soldier. In order
that these immense hosts should be
able to march and fight they had to be
fed, and systematically fed. As to
how this stupendous job was continu-
ally accomplished, we are still wonder
ing: and the soldiers, who know better
than nybody else the size of the Job,
wonder the most. What the soldiers
do know about it ought to be put into
print.
The subject naturally falls under two
heads-the regular and the irregular
feeding of the soldier. Anybody who
imagines from this enumeration that it
is the beginning OF sermon on army
subsistence is recommended to read
right on, and he will be soon unde-
ceived.
Soldiers were accustomed to speak
OF situation where there was little
duty and plenty to eat, as a soft thing. I"
The expression particularly referred to
the troops who garrisoned the forts or
were barracked in the large cities as a
permanent guard. These comrades,
most of them, only wanted the occasion
to show that there was fight in them +;
indeed the worst slaughter at Cold
Harbor was among the heavy artillery
regiments, fresh from the forts at Bal
timore; but the duty first named was,
after all, much like playing soldier
A comfortable bunk to sleep in, under
a tight roof; full rations every day, 80
large in quantity that there was an ex-
cess to sell or swap, whereby delicacies
were procured; all this, with the easy
duty and no marching, was emphatic
ally "a soft thing" but, in the eye of
the soldier of two or three hot cam
paigns, it was not soldering.
Often in passing some immense depot
of commissary supply in the city or in
| the field, 1 paused to look at tue vast
structures of boxes of hard bread, the
piles of coffee in sacks. the pyramids
of bacon. These were the staples
hard bread, coffee, bacon. Next to
gunpowder and cold steel, they were
the sinews of war.
| think that the experience of all
veterans will agree with mine. On
actual campaign, we had the best of
times and the worst of times; we were
sometimes in regions of plenty
especially SO in the Gulf States-where
army rations were almost discarded,
and the soldier waxed fat and merry as
he lived on the country; we were
sometimes so far ont of the reach of the
commissary, that half-rations were
| gladly accepted, when offered; but
through it all, through plenty and
leanness, the soldier always acknowl-
edged the worth of his two steadfast
friends-cotfee and hard-tack.
AS to coffee-I do not doubt that il
saved thousands upon thousands oi
lives in the army. The soldier abso.
lutely could not do without it. T,
strengthened him for his work in way
that nothing else could possibly do.
He learned by practice and experience
the trick of making it ready for use
in tie briefest time, and amid surround.
ings where the thing seemed impossible.
Thereproachful epithet, "coffee boiler. y
ought to be changed to something more
distinctive of the class of skulks and
towards to whom it is commonly ap.
piled. Al! soldiers loved coffee. When